Digital three-dimensional object manufacturing, also known as digital additive manufacturing, is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. Three-dimensional object printing is an additive process in which one or more ejector heads eject successive layers of material to form an object on a substrate. The substrate is supported either on a platform that can be moved three dimensionally by operation of actuators operatively connected to the platform, or the ejector heads are operatively connected to one or more actuators for controlled movement of the ejector heads to produce the layers that form the object. Three-dimensional object printing is distinguishable from traditional object-forming techniques, which mostly rely on the removal of material from a work piece by a subtractive process, such as cutting or drilling. Manufacturing of three-dimensional printed parts using these techniques is ideal for producing small quantities of small and detailed parts.
Defects in the printed 3D object may occur during the production of the 3D object that can result in an inaccurate object. Detection of these errors during the manufacturing process can be problematic because some surfaces cannot be observed after later layers of the object are formed. If these errors could be detected, the manufacture could be adjusted to compensate for the errors. Some previously known systems do not evaluate the production of the object. In these systems, the production of the 3D object with defects can result in a poor quality 3D object or inaccurate reproduction of the 3D object. As such, improvements in the production process that enable evaluation of a 3D object are desirable.